The Knack... and How to Get It (1965)

the audience applauded

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

best movie i've ever seen.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

One of the key films of the 1960's, "The Knack" features the motion picture debuts of three of the most gorgeous and talented women to ever walk the earth: Jacqueline Bissett, Charlotte Rampling and Jane Birkin. Bissett is in the climactic scene, lining up to cheer "Rory McBride" at Albert Hall. Rampling is the water-skier who sensuously (no other way for Charlotte) pours a glass of water down the front of her we suit. And then there's "Birks," first seen borrowing a chair from Michael Crawford to wait her turn in the hall, and then riding off triumphantly with Ray Brooks on his motorcycle. She also ran off triumphantly with the film's composer, John Barry -- the first of her husbands. I saw "The Knack" on stage in the New York production directed by Mike Nichols. it was very entertaining. But Lester's film is truly invention. And David Watkins' black and white cinematography is far more beautifully than almost anything ever done in color.

WARNING: SPOILER.I was a college student when I saw this movie in 1967 and again in 1968. Its irreverent and crazy look at male-female relationships was intoxicating. Aside from the general theme about "getting the girl," the only thing I remember is the hilarious opening scene in which hundreds of pretty girls, all dressed alike, are standing in a long line, waiting for the opportunity to interact with the guy who "had the knack (with women)." As the camera follows the long line of beauties around the block, into an apartment building, and up the stairs, the viewer wonders what's going on. Finally the camera reaches the head of the line, and we see what every girl has waited hours for: meeting the cool guy and signing his guest book. Priceless!

Although some people like to call "The Knack" one of the best comedies of the sixties I don't agree with them. It's just a very silly, unorganized, hectic and boring farce about four beatniks running around and talking weird nonsense all the time. Especially the ugly duckling Rita Tushingham is getting on your nerves pretty soon.If people are doing things like that in a 1960's movie and are reading quotations from Karl Marx or a Mao bible, it's probably a Jean-Luc Godard film. If you leave away Marx and Mao and add hundreds of stupid jokes in a row that are all falling flat, it's probably a Richard Lester movie. "The Knack" is very much like Lester's Beatles movies - great music throughout, this time provided by a rousing John Barry score with a great theme tune, but no script, bad acting and a big bore... in Germany we would call that "beknackt" (sic!) - simply stupid!If you are looking for entertaining British movies from and about the sixties, there are much better ones. Check out Antonioni's "Blow-up", the James Bond movies and it's parodies like "Casino Royale" or the Harry Palmer films, "The Thomas Crown Affair" or the kitchen sink dramas of the early sixties like "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning", "Wild Honey" or "Four in the Morning". Or take "Beat Girl", a rather unknown 1960's mod-flick with another great Barry score.

The Knack emerges as a serious contender as the film which best defines and captures the essence of the sixties. As a product of its age, it convincingly portrays an image of 'swinging London' that so dominated the media at that time. It is an enduring image, which has long since seeped into our collective consciousness.Today, The Knack appears, at best, to be an attempt at understanding the changing moral landscape that was being radically redrawn during this era. As a piece of contemporary film making, it manages to capture the spirit of that age perfectly. What it doesn't necessarily do is make sense of it all. The 1960s was, after all, a period of rapid social and political change - an age of cold war tension, supersonic invention and lunar landing pretensions, combined with increasing freedom for teenagers, both in terms of sex and spending power.The quartet of principal actors, Crawford, Tushingham, Brooks & Donnelly all give bravura performances. Richard Lester's direction was exemplary; indeed, he has probably not made a better film since those heady days. The locations, featuring some rather dingy-looking parts of the capital, look all the more so thanks to the decision to film in monochrome. This was particular brave considering the colourful times the film was depicting. The one ingredient which most of all created the sense of playfulness indicative of the film was John Barry's wonderfully mischievous jazz-tinged pop score. One cannot imagine the film without it, which is the highest compliment one can pay to a film soundtrack.There is no doubt that The Knack was and remains a stylish movie, albeit rooted in its time. No viewer can fail to date its origin correctly ... yet that's precisely what makes this celluloid time-capsule such a fascinating viewing experience. It exists as the archetypal mid-sixties art-house movie, which, like the decade in which it was written, took risks, dared to be different, and, if it didn't always succeed, sure as hell made an impression.